SMGI in tourism planning: the role of customers’ preferences in spatial decision support.

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AMBIENTALE ED ARCHITETTURA

CORSO DI DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN INGEGNERIA DEL TERRITORIO XXVII CICLO

SETTORE SCIENTIFICO DISCIPLINARE DI AFFERENZA: ICAR/20

SMGI

in

tourism

planning:

the

role

of

customers’

preferences

in

spatial

decision

support.

Doctoral

Candidate:

Roberta

Floris

Doctoral

Coordinator:

Roberto

Deidda

Supervisors:

Michele

Campagna,

Corrado

Zoppi

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Abstract

The dissertation deals with the role of social media platform is playing as an information resource in

tourism both for customers (i.e. the tourists), who gather trustworthy information supporting the choice of

destinations and services from peers, and for businesses, which can use the same information for

improving their marketing strategies. The use of social media data can also offer new opportunities for

decision‐support in tourism planning. With improved understanding of the motivations of tourists and

tailoring tourism service supply, decision making can be facilitated by emphasizing the strengths of tourist

destinations for past and potential visitors.

However, this kind of information about tourists’ perceptions and opinions is not always properly analysed

by planners. Understanding the user satisfaction, which depends on factors related to both the location and

the services that the local industry proposes, may offer valuable information in tourism planning at regional

and local level. In the light of the above premises, the goal of this study is to propose an integrated

approach to investigate the relationships between tourists’ satisfaction, destination resources and tourism

industry for supporting design and decision‐making in regional tourism planning.

The methodology implemented in the thesis includes data collection from Booking and TripAdvisor.com

and their integration with authoritative territorial data. Spatial and statistical analysis techniques are

applied in order to assess tourists’ perceptions on success factors, which may be used as planning support

tools. Four cases study demonstrates the value of social media‐related data integrated by authoritative

information in tourism planning.

Finally, the dissertation proposes a critical discussion on the effectiveness of using the implemented

integrated approach in order to address other planning issues. The discussion underlines the potential of

the proposed approach in order to address other planning questions as well.

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Table

of

contents

Abstract ... 2

CHAPTER 1 ... 6

Introduction ... 6

1.1 Tourism planning in the era of Digital Information ... 6

1.2 The role of tourist Social Networks and the tourists/user perceptions ... 8

1.3 Research gaps ... 8

1.4 Aims and research questions ... 9

1.5 Research methodology ... 11

1.6 Summary of the dissertation ... 12

CHAPTER 2 ... 14

The issues of sustainable tourism ... 14

2.1 Introduction ... 14

2.2 The evolution of the sustainable tourism development concept ... 14

2.2.1 Stakeholders involvement in tourism planning processes ... 17

2.3 Impacts of tourist activities ... 17

2.4 Discussion ... 20

CHAPTER 3 ... 21

Tourism, destination and perception ... 21

3.2 Current developments in tourism ... 22

3.2.1 Different tourism models in literature ... 23

3.3 Destination choices and travel motivation ... 25

3.4 Costumers preferences ... 26

3.5 Tourism revolution: the role of Information and communication technologies ... 27

CHAPTER 4 ... 32

Tourism in the age of Digital Information ... 32

4.2 The support of Digital Information in planning ... 33

4.2.1 Spatial Data Infrastructures and Authoritative Geographic Information ... 34

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4.2.3 Social Media related Geographic Information ... 37

4.3 Current developments in tourism social media ... 38

CHAPTER 5 ... 42

The ruling framework and the issue of sustainable tourism in Sardinia ... 42

5.2 Planning for sustainability ... 42

5.3 The issue of sustainability in Sardinia: the regional planning framework ... 44

5.3.1 The issue of coastal tourism in Sardinia ... 45

5.4 The Regional Plan of Sustainable Development based on Tourism ... 47

5.5 Some critical aspects of the RPSDT ... 50

CHAPTER 6 ... 53

Multidimensional analyses of tourism Social Media related Geographic Information ... 53

6.2 Data collection and geocoding ... 54

6.2 Spatial analyses of tourism preferences ... 56

6.3 SMGI analytics of destinations ... 57

6.4 Geographically Weighted Regression analysis ... 59

6.4.1 Spatial Autocorrelation ... 59

CHAPTER 7 ... 64

The case study and the analysis of results ... 64

7.1.1 The logical framework ... 64

7.2 Data collection and geocoding ... 65

7.1.1 Spatial distribution of Tourism Lodging Service ... 66

7.1.2 Spatial distribution of user comments ... 68

7.2 Spatial analyses of tourism preferences ... 70

7.2.1 Clusters of tourists’ preferences ... 70

7.2.2 Preferences by tourists’ typology ... 73

7.2.3 The Geographically weighted regression at the regional level ... 77

7.3 SMGI analytics at the local level ... 81

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7.3.2 Case study 2: Cagliari ... 88

7.3.3 Case study 3: Arzachena ... 94

7.3.4 Case study 4: Dorgali ... 99

CHAPTER 8 ... 106

Conclusion ... 106

8.1 Summary of the key concepts ... 106

8.2 Main findings ... 108

8.3 Concluding remarks ... 112

References ... 114

Plans and relevant Programs ... 124

List of abbreviation and acronyms ... 125

List of Figure, Boxes and Tables ... 127

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CHAPTER

1

Introduction

1.1

Tourism

planning

in

the

era

of

Digital

Information

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world and is based on multifaceted activities, which may

generate both positive and negative impacts within the social, cultural and environmental domain.

According to Smith (1991), as a complex activity, tourism comprises the travel to and around a destination,

with the purpose of exploiting particular natural or non‐natural attractions, accommodation, and

specialized and general services. These types of resources have been classified by Jafari (1982) into

background tourism elements and facilities services. For this reason, tourism is commonly recognised both

as a spatial (Peroni, 2007; Cooper, 2008) and soil consumption (Boccagna, 2010) phenomenon. This fact

becomes more evident when tourist activities are not adequately developed and planned.

Sustainable tourism – meant in its broader definition as “a set of principles, policy prescriptions, and

management methods, which lead to sustainable development such that a destination area environmental

resource base is protected for future generation trade” (WTO, 2012) – represents the key element for the

delivery of sustainable development in the tourism sector (Hunter, 1997) and is fundamentally linked to the

idea of sustainable development (WCED, 1987:43). Enhancing this concept, Theobald (2005) defined the

sustainable tourism as “the tourisms which is developed so that the nature, scale, location and manner of

development is appropriate and sustainable over time, and where the environment’s ability to support

other activities and processes is not impaired, since tourism cannot be isolated from other resources

activities”. Sustainable tourism was designed not to stop tourism activities but to manage them in the

interests of all three parties involved: the host communities, the tourists and the industry itself (Lane,

2008).

In particular, sustainable tourism should i) maintain essential ecological processes and help to conserve

natural heritage and biodiversity, which constitute a key element in tourism development, ii) preserve and

respect the socio‐cultural authenticity of host communities, the architectural characteristics of their

monuments and traditional housing, and their cultural heritage and traditional values (Lanzarote

Conference, 2005) and iii) provide socio‐economic benefits (with long‐term economic operations), to

stakeholders involved, and social services to host communities (UNWTO, 2005).

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place and identity could help to develop more effective planning strategies for sustainable development

based on tourism, in order to reach services quality goals, preserving the natural resources, the cultural

heritage and life quality of the host communities.

In the era of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) an unprecedented wealth of digital

geographic information, collected into new digital formats, is made available to planners to support design,

spatial analysis and decision‐making processes. This trend could foster notable innovations in urban and

regional planning methodologies.

First of all, the Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) development in Europe, defined as interoperability

infrastructures, enabled public access and reuse of Authoritative Geographic Information (A‐GI), according

to technology and policy standards. In many regions across Europe, the regional SDIs represent technical

platforms for the development of planning processes at regional and local levels by means of supplied data

and services (Campagna and Craglia, 2012). Secondly, current developments in connectivity, geo‐browsers

and mobile technologies, enabled by Web 2.0, allow citizens to act as volunteer sensors (Goodchild, 2007)

in order to provide real‐time Geographic Information (GI). Nowadays, this wealth of digital information, or

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), can be easily collected, analysed, understood and used to

support informed decision‐making. In several countries worldwide, the use of VGI is simplifying and

fostering participatory processes, becoming the main source of information in planning emergency

response, environmental monitoring and spatial planning (Poser and Dransch, 2010), and in local planning

for countries affected by the lack of large scale authoritative data sources. These opportunities can both

enable a trans‐active approach (Friedman, 1973) in planning practices and foster the democracy and the

sustainability in making plans at urban and regional levels.

Furthermore, widespread diffusion of social media is fostering the dissemination of geo‐referenced

multimedia (Sui and Goodchild, 2011), or Social Media related Geographic Information (SMGI), over the

global Internet. Users can easily access information and also be the producers of personal geo‐referenced

contents on location‐based social networks. These capabilities have surpassed past limitations in data

communication, and are disclosing innovative opportunities for disseminating and gathering geographic

information among worldwide users, fostering media convergence with GIS environment (Sui and

Goodchild, ibidem). The social media contents can be considered as innovative Big Data source (Caverlee,

2010), and need new spatial analysis techniques in managing and exploiting their knowledge potential

(Massa and Campagna, 2014).

The integration of SMGI with A‐GI can create novel analysis opportunities in spatial planning, with regards

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locations or tourism destinations.

1.2

The

role

of

tourist

Social

Networks

and

the

tourists/user

perceptions

In the last decade, the fast evolution of ICTs enabled users to ubiquitously access a broad range of

information services. The degree of interactivity, established by the Web 2.0 paradigm, enhanced the role

of the Internet as information source, with a secondary role as opinion source (Grabner et al., 2012).

Tourism is one of the sectors where the wide exploitation of ICTs leads to the development of online tourist

communities. Travel topics are among the most popular in on‐line social networks (Buhalis and O'Connor,

2005; Baggio et al., 2008).

Tourism on‐line platforms development and the e‐Tourism advent (Buhalis, 1999), on the one hand,

represent an important marketing channel through which destinations and tourism enterprises can reach

and persuade potential tourists (Buhalis and Law, 2008). They can also assist consumers in posting and

sharing their travel‐related comments. Travellers’ opinions and personal experiences based on their trips

serve, in turn, as information to others.

The future of e‐Tourism focuses on consumer needs technologies that will enable organizations to focus on

their profitability through a partnerships network. Consumers are more sophisticated and experienced and,

therefore, more difficult to please (O’Connor, 1999). The availability of powerful ICTs empowers both

suppliers and destinations to enhance their efficiency and re‐engineer their communication strategies.

1.3

Research

gaps

In Sardinia, the tourism sector is one of the major driving forces of regional economy and most affects

coastal areas (CRENOS, 2011), which due to their fragility have generally been considered as areas to be

planned and managed in a special way for the number of activities, possible land uses (Hospers, 2003). As a

result, various interests, such as those of residents, developers, environmentalists and investors, may meet

in coastal areas and come into conflict (RAS, 2006). Because of this apparent conflict between tourism

development in coastal areas and the need to safeguard them, the Regional Executive Committee decided

to prepare the Regional Landscape Plan (RLP) together with the Regional Plan for Sustainable Development

based on Tourism (RPSDT). The RPSDT tourism was approved in order to preserve regional, cultural and

natural landscape and promote sustainable development based on tourism. Nevertheless, very little

research regarding it exists.

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improving the regional socio‐economic conditions. However, not all of the possible forms of tourism are

desirable due to their irreversible environmental consequences.

The RPSDT focuses on the inter‐relationship between the economic benefits and the environmental

impacts of tourism enterprise and, in so doing, recognises the lack of a global strategy of sustainable

development based on tourism. However the geographic perspective is not properly considered by the

plan: it does not analyse the spatial dimension of the tourism enterprise (Cooper, 2008) and its relationship

with travel motivations (Dellaert et al., 1998) and tourists’ behaviour (Buhalis, 2000).

Another critical aspect is that a good planning process needs to engage local communities and recipients

directly in its implementation (Zoppi, 2012; Wates, 2014). This way, it is much more likely to be successful

in delivering local benefits and to be sustained over time (Leslie et al., 2007). In the RPSDT, the lack of

involvement by stakeholders is notable as much as a careful analysis of tourist behaviour.

Understanding tourist behaviour and psychology may help in assessing some of the problems which

planners and decision makers need to solve for the tourism planning implementation (Briassuolis, 2002). In

this perspective, with improved understanding of the tourist’s motivations and tailoring tourism services,

decision making can be facilitated by emphasizing the strengths of tourist destinations for past and

potential tourists. Several conceptual models found in the literature dealt with the role of tourist

psychology, in terms of needs, perceptions, and motivation (Baker and Crompton, 2000). Such components

are considered important contributors to both the understanding of an individual’s travel behaviour (Dann,

2010) and in supporting the tourism planning approaches used in the present day.

In the Digital Information age, tourist preferences data, available on forums and reviews, are generated by

users/customers and provide relevant knowledge for planning practices. This new trend could foster

notable innovations in urban and regional planning methodologies (Zin et al., 2013; Campagna, 2014).

Moreover, the integration of this information with traditional authoritative data sources may represent an

opportunity of great potential to eventually enrich tourism strategies with a broader, deeper and more

pluralist knowledge of the places or destinations.

1.4

Aims

and

research

questions

This thesis focuses on tourism, analysing the relationships between demand, industry and location,

identified as fundamental variables. The research aims to understand if the use of SMGI may offer

knowledge bases for decision making in tourism planning. The investigations are carried out exploring the

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related services they find, for providing useful knowledge about these inclinations in space and time.

For research purposes, a traditional method for collecting information about such preferences, performed

via ad‐hoc surveys, can be expensive and time consuming. For this reason an alternative approach is

presented, by which tourist preferences are discovered by processing and analysing publicly available social

media data. In addition, the investigation aims to demonstrate the potential of SMGI as support for design,

analysis and decision making in tourism planning, and the benefits derived from informing regional and

local initiatives.

The adopted methodology deals with several questions related to tourist preferences:

1. Which are the most popular destinations?

2. Why do people choose those destinations?

3. What attracts tourists’ attention and what do they appreciate or disregard?

5. Could the relationship between service quality and location be explained both at regional and local

level?

6. How can this knowledge be used in supporting tourism planning approaches?

This kind of study and the methodology adopted, which couples SMGI and A‐GI from open SDI, may provide

a novel kind of information, which could be integrated with traditional knowledge and successfully used in

urban and regional planning as well as in tourism planning, for in both cases they contribute to take into

account a multifaceted customer‐oriented view on strategic development issues. In addition, using SMGI

may reveal opportunities for further analysis scenarios in urban and regional planning, and may offer useful

suggestions for tourism planning strategies. In an integrated planning support framework, SMGI analytics

might help to understand tourists’ observations, preferences, interests, feelings, or needs, and possibly

affect decision‐making dynamics and planning processes with customer oriented strategies.

The methodological approach, adopted in this thesis, has the following goals:

1) evaluating the regional tourism supply distribution and location of interest;

2) identifying tourists’ preferences spatial patterns, including clusters of positive and negative

preferences;

3) evaluating patterns and individual spots of interest;

4) finding a properly calibrated spatial model, which integrates SMGI/A‐GI, in order to calculate spatial

variation in the relationships among positive preferences, i.e. the dependent variable, and environmental,

structural and positional explanatory variables.

The findings could provide important insights into the Sardinian tourism industry, which could be used to

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analysis and directions for tourism policy drafting.

1.5

Research

methodology

The methodological approach builds on a preliminary exploratory analysis of social network contents of

Sardinia, searching for the most popular destination, the relationships between service quality and location

and the spatial distribution of tourist preferences at regional and local levels.

The research has been carried out on considering Leiper’s general conceptual model (1990), reviewed by

Cooper (2008), as a fundamental starting point. Leiper’s model can be summarized by the following

equation:

Appreciation

and

criticisms

=

Location

+

service

quality.

In order to determine each variable of this equation, the research uses geographic information data, in

particular both Authoritative Geographic Information (A‐GI) and Social Media related Geographic

Information (SMGI). Combined A‐GI and SMGI data are used to express location. Service quality is

investigated through SMGI support. Thus, a two dimensional analysis framework is implemented at

regional and local levels.

First of all, analyses at regional scale are implemented to describe spatial patterns of tourist preferences

and to identify locations of interest; the latter may include clusters of positive or negative preferences, or

individual spots of interest. Then, at the local level (i.e. within the single cluster or spot of interest) further

analyses are developed aiming at understanding the possible reasons behind the patterns and singularities.

The assumption is that findings may help in explaining success or failure factors with regards to destination

and services.

Both at regional and local levels, the study is based on four main steps. Firstly, data are extracted from the

most popular tourism social networks geocoded and integrated in a geodatabase for analysis. Secondly,

data are analysed for the entire region, at the municipal unit of analysis, with spatial analysis, spatial

statistics, and spatial textual techniques, in order to detect clusters of positive tourist preferences. Then,

the analysis shifts to the local scale; data are integrated with authoritative data from official open data

sources, in order to find explanatory hints on the preference dynamics and to get deeper insights on the

relationships among tourist preferences, local territorial features and quality of industry services in selected

destinations.

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measurable even with the use of proxy variables, necessarily involves the use of spatial analysis techniques

that are able to process the location variable. Geographic Weighted Regression (GWR) quantifies the

relationships among variables, which differ from one location to another. GWR is adopted for both

modelling preferences phenomenon and to test the reliability of the hypotheses developed from results of

the qualitative analysis, in order to make appropriate decisions in terms of policy.

1.6

Summary

of

the

dissertation

The thesis consists of 8 chapters.

Following Chapter 1, which sets out the context, introduces the general aim of the research and formulates

the research questions, Chapter 2 contains the state of the art. The chapter deals with the relationships

between tourism and environment describing the evolution of the concept of sustainable development and

sustainable tourism.

Chapter 3 provides an overview of current trends in tourism, in order to understand how the development

of ICTs is changing the travel world and the way in which holiday destinations are chosen. Secondly, a

definition of the travel decision‐making process is provided, starting from the concept of tourist

preferences which lead to different destination choices. The chapter concludes describing the advent of e‐

Tourism and current changes of knowledge sharing, which influence the tourism industry model and

tourism planning approaches.

Chapter 4 deals with the opportunities of SMGI as valuable support for analysis, design and decision‐

making in tourism planning practices at both regional and local levels. Moreover, the chapter presents a

short overview of the most popular tourist social networks, oriented to data creation, dissemination and

collection, and describes new perspective and weakness that still limit the integration of SMGI into

planning practices.

Chapter 5 provides an explanation of the ruling planning framework of the Sardinian region, in terms of

landscape safeguarding and sustainable tourism development. In order to evaluate the efficiency of the

Regional Plan of Sustainable Development based on Tourism, both as a landscape preservation plan and

regarding its contribution to sustainability, the chapter aims to pinpoint some key characteristics of

sustainable plans, by looking at the international literature on the topic, identifying underlying principles

and recommendations.

Chapter 6 focuses on the research methodology in detail. In order to understand the tourist preferences

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(regional and local level) and two dimensions (service quality and location). This kind of approach may

provide new opportunities for planners as well as new research challenges, to use A‐GI and SMGI for a

pluralist and customer‐oriented policy‐making process in tourism planning.

Chapter 7 sets out the findings from the qualitative and quantitative research, carried out in order to

identify spatial patterns of tourist preferences, including clusters of positive preferences and obtain more

detailed information about singular spots of interest. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first part

presents a mixed methods approach, in which quantitative and qualitative information gathered from two

of the major tourism Social networks is collected in a database for analyses. The quantitative information

concerns the scores of tourist evaluation criteria, while the qualitative information includes textual

descriptive customer reviews. The second part discusses results of the application of spatial analyses of

tourist preferences, in order to explore spatial patterns of positive tourist judgments at the regional level.

The application of spatial analytical techniques allows for the exploration of spatial patterns of tourists’

perceptions and their relationships with different variables. After analysis of tourism dynamics at the

regional level, the methodology shifts to the local scale for further analyses, aimed at finding explanatory

answers for the phenomena observed in single destinations. The last part quantitatively illustrates

outcomes from geographic weighted regressions, used to model spatial relationship and explain the factors

behind observed spatial patterns both at regional and local levels.

Finally, chapter 8 summarises the main findings of the thesis, answers the research questions and draws

conclusions to indicate possible future research developments.

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CHAPTER

2

The

issues

of

sustainable

tourism

2.1

Introduction

Tourism is one of the world’s most important industries and one of the most developed and marketed

economic sectors. Anderson (2008) defines tourism as a mixed industry in which private firms, public

agencies and non‐profit associations, all of which co‐exist in most societies, compete and collaborate in

creating the final product for tourists. According to Smith (1991) tourism is a complex activity which

comprises the journey to and around a destination, with the purpose of consuming particular attractions

(Inskeep, 1991), accommodation, catering, entertainment, specialized and general services.

Considering the magnitude of the tourist sector at global level, there is no doubt that its impact comprises

both positive and negative effects within the socio‐cultural and environmental spheres. This becomes more

evident when tourist activity is not adequately developed and planned (Briassoulis, 2002). According to Hall

et al (2004) destinations and tourism enterprises around the world experienced a meaningful shift in policy

profile, such as government and governance at all levels dealing with travel and security issues and with

tourism related economic and employment impacts.

Before explaining the relationship between tourist activity and the environment, this section explains, with

a brief premise, the evolution of the sustainable development and the sustainable tourism concepts. Then,

it focuses on the positive and negative consequences produced by tourism on geographic locations,

considering both the environmental and socio‐economic perspectives.

2.2

The

evolution

of

the

sustainable

tourism

development

concept

The paradigm of sustainable development based on tourism emerged in the last two decades. As Hunter

(2002) argues, a growing proportion of tourism researches focused on the principles and practice of

sustainable tourism development. The term “sustainable tourism” encompasses a set of principles, policy

prescriptions, and management methods which fostered tourism development (Hunter, 1997). This

paragraph reviews the development of the term, beginning with a discussion of the most accredited

definitions of sustainable tourism.

The original definition of sustainable tourism is fundamentally linked to the idea of sustainable

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as Our Common Future, sustainable development is defined as the “development that meets the needs of

the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED,

1987: 43).

Butler's (1993, p. 29) definition of sustainable tourism development appears to contribute substantially in

combining the concept of sustainable tourism with sustainable development. In addition, he stated that

“sustainable development, in the context of tourism, could be taken as the tourism which is developed and

maintained in an area (community, environment) in such a manner and at such a scale that it remains

viable over an indefinite period and does not degrade or alter the environment (human and physical) in

which it exists to such a degree that it prohibits the successful development and well‐being of other

activities and processes. That is not the same as sustainable tourism, which may be thought of as tourism,

which is in a form which can maintain its viability in an area for an indefinite period of time”.

In this definition Butler distinguished sustainable tourism development from sustainable tourism. Although

this distinction seems not to be widely recognised, it is important. Sustainable tourism development has

also been reviewed comprehensively by several other researchers such as Bramwell and Lane (2013)

Murphy (1994) and Harris and Leiper (1995). According to Tosun (2001), sustainable development based on

tourism should contribute to satisfy the needs of those hitherto excluded in local tourist destinations.

Furthermore, it should reduce inequality and poverty in local tourist destinations and accelerate regional

and local economic growth. Finally, sustainable development based on tourism should achieve the above

objectives or principles for an indefinite period of time, without compromising the ability of future

generations to meet their own need.

However, tourism researchers and policy‐makers are relatively slow in responding to these concepts and

have remained somewhat detached from the continuing debate on the interpretation and implications of

sustainability (Butler, 1999).

Tourism has a long history. The real rise of this phenomenon as a major pursuit and as an important

industry started in the post‐war period. UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) statistics are available

from the year 1950, when 25 million international travellers were recorded. Then the meteoric rise of the

tourism industry began, with an average annual growth of 6.5% over the period 1950‐2007 (WTO, 2006).

In 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, sustainable development became a goal agreed upon by

several countries. Four basic principles are crucial to achieving sustainability:

1) the idea of holistic, cross‐sector strategic planning;

2) the importance of preserving essential ecological processes;

3) the need to protect both human heritage and biodiversity;

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resources in the long term for future generations (Rio Declaration on Environment and Development,

1992).

The implementation of the Rio Declaration principles is particularly relevant regarding their ambivalence,

for they can help to preserve and improve the environment but they can also generate changes in negative

terms. After the Rio Declaration several international documents, such as the Charter for Sustainable

Tourism, Lanzarote (WTO 1995b), and the Agenda 21 for the Travel and Tourism Industry (WTO 1995a),

highlighted the importance of those principles, dealing with the conceptual definition of tourism and the

ways to make it operative in planning processes.

Twenty years after the Earth Summit and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the UN

Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20, took place in 2012. This represents the third

international conference on sustainable development, which aimed at mediating economic and

environmental goals of the global community. Key themes at the high‐level conference were jobs, energy,

cities, food, water, oceans and disasters (WTO, 2012). Tourism was included for the first time in the UN

Conference on Sustainable Development Report, because this phenomenon can make a significant

contribution to the three dimensions of sustainable development, has close linkages to other sectors, can

create acceptable jobs and can generate trade (WTO, 2012).

The concept of sustainable tourism has been interpreted in many different ways. Butler (1999) states that

one of the major problems with the concept of sustainable development has been the way in which the

single word 'sustainable' has been applied to a variety of activities, based on the assumption that it carries

the ideological and philosophical implications of the concept with it.

According to Eber (1992), sustainable tourism can be defined as “tourism plus associated infrastructures,

that, both now and in the future, operate within natural capacities for the natural resources regeneration

and their future productivity ”. Along the same lines, Coccossis (1996) suggested that there are four ways of

interpreting tourism within the context of sustainable development:

‐ an ecological point of view, emphasizing the need of ecologically sustainable tourism; ‐ a long‐term viability of tourism, recognizing the competitiveness of destinations; ‐ a sectorial point of view, such as the economic sustainability of the tourism sector;

‐ a point of view accepting tourism as part of a strategy for achieving sustainable development,

throughout the physical and human environments.

The most relevant problem with the concept of sustainable tourism is dealing with the word 'sustainable'

(Butler, 1993). Sustainable tourism was designed not to stop tourism activities but to manage them in the

interests of all three parties involved: the host inhabitants and communities, the tourists and the industry

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In the light of the above premises, sustainable tourism should:

‐ maintain essential ecological processes and help preserve natural heritage and biodiversity, which

constitute a key element in tourism development;

‐ preserve and respect the socio‐cultural authenticity of host communities, the architectural

characteristics of their monuments and traditional housing, and their cultural heritage and traditional

values;

‐ provide socio‐economic benefits, with long‐term economic actions, to all stakeholders that are

unevenly distributed, including stable employment, income‐earning opportunities and social services to

host communities, as well as contributing to alleviate poverty (UNEP and UNWTO, 2005).

2.2.1 Stakeholders involvement in tourism planning processes

More recently the WTO pointed out that sustainable tourism is a condition of tourism based on the

principles of sustainable development, taking full account of its current and future economic, social and

environmental impacts (UNEP/WTO, 2005:11 e 12) and addressing the needs of stakeholders (Hunter,

2002).

Sustainable tourism development requires the informed participation of all relevant stakeholders, as well

as strong political instruments, to ensure wide participation and consensus building. Many diﬀerent

interests could benefit from sustainable tourism. Tourism businesses should be concerned about their

corporate image, the relationship with their staﬀ, and their impact on the global environment and

immediate surroundings. Local communities are seeking increased prosperity without damaging their

quality of life. Tourists look for a high quality experience in a safe and attractive environment; they are

becoming more aware of the impact of their travelling (Crouch et al, 2004).

Governments should provide an environment that encourages the private sector, tourists and other

stakeholders to respond to sustainability issues. This can be achieved by establishing and implementing a

set of policies in order to achieve tourism development and management. The principles of sustainable

development empathise local determination and implementation of policies and actions, within a

supportive policy framework at national and regional levels (Briassoulis, 2002).

2.3

Impacts

of

tourist

activities

The relationship between tourism and the quality of environment is highly complex. Tourism industry

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applied anthropic pressures. These involve many activities, such as the construction of general

infrastructures (roads, airports and marinas), and tourist facilities, such as resorts, hotels, restaurants and

shops (Barberis, 2008), which could have adverse environmental effects (Smith, 2001).

On the one hand, negative impact of tourism development can gradually destroy environmental resources

on which it depends. On the other hand, tourism activities may represent a tool to finance protection of

natural areas and increase their economic importance, enhancing environmental protection and

conservation (Buhalis, 1999). In order to avoid adverse effects, this impact needs to be monitored on a

continuous basis and the benefits need to be maximised (Hall, 2008). This is necessary not only for

protecting the well‐being of the community (Briassoulis, 2002), but also to ensure quality tourist services

and long‐term viability at individual destinations (Smith, 2001). If properly planned, tourism may lead to

conservation, environmental protection, and could represent an economic development strategy (Ivars,

2004).

Local communities consider tourism industry exclusively in terms of economic impact jobs, and taxes.

However, the range of impact is broad, and often influences areas beyond those commonly associated with

tourism. As a matter of fact, researchers have identified several forms of tourism impact deriving from

tourist activity development at regional or local context, (La Rocca, 2008; Cicerchia, 2009), and grouped

them into different categories. According to Kreag (2001) these categories are seven:

1) economic;

2) environmental;

3) social and cultural;

4) crowding and congestion;

5) services;

6) taxes;

7) community attitude.

From the economic point of view, tourism creates jobs, both through direct employment within the tourist

industry and indirectly in sectors such as retail and transportation (Hassan 2000). Tourism could also

provide opportunities for small‐scale business enterprises, which is especially important in rural

communities, and could generates extra tax revenues, such as airport and hotel taxes, which can be used

for schools, housing and hospitals.

Despite these facts, successful tourism relies on establishing a basic infrastructure, such as roads, visitor

centres and hotels. Governments usually cover the costs of these services, which have to come out of tax

revenues. Jobs created by tourism are often seasonal and poorly paid, yet tourism can push up local

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benefit the local community, as some of it leaks out to huge international companies, such as hotel chains.

Regarding social and cultural benefits, Crouch et al. (2004) state that infrastructure and new leisure

amenities improvement, which result from tourism, also benefit the local community. Tourism encourages

the preservation of traditional customs, handicrafts and festivals that might otherwise have been allowed

to wane, and it creates civic pride. However, tourist behaviour could damage the quality of life of host

communities, causing crowding and congestion. Sometimes, interaction with tourists could also lead to loss

of traditional culture.

From an environmental perspective, tourism, and particularly its mostly sustainable form, ecotourism, may

help implement conservation of wildlife and natural resources, as these are not regarded as assets for

tourism. It also helps to generate funding for preserving flora and fauna, through entrance charges and

guide fees (Bayer, 1990). Nevertheless, territorial abuse, in terms of tourism businesses and activities, could

represent a threat to regional natural and cultural resources, such as water supply, beaches and heritage

sites. It also generates air pollution through traffic emissions, soil contamination through waste and

sewage production, and increased noise pollution (Kreag 2001).

Tourism often develops and concentrates around specific geographic locations, providing growth yet

avoiding sprawl. Historic buildings and grounds, which might otherwise slowly deteriorate, have great

appeal for tourism development and could be renovated frequently to suit the industry (LaRocca, 2008).

People congregate in these locations and generate congestion and crowding, leading to stress, annoyance

and other negative attitudes. In some cases, tourism constructions, especially hotels, may be inappropriate

in scale and style with respect to other structures and landscape (Bramwell and Lane, 2013).

Leisure industry creates opportunities for developing new amenities and recreation facilities, which would

not otherwise be available in a community. Tourists’ expectations lead to services upgrade, by local shops,

restaurants, and other commerce operators. Sometimes, traditional services may be forced out or

relocated due to competition with tourist interests (Crouch et al., 2004). Supply shortages may occur,

temporarily or seasonally. Water, energy, fuel, and other shortages may be experienced with increased

pressure on the infrastructures. Increased retail activity from restaurants and tourist shopping will add

state and local sales tax revenue.

Lodging tax revenue to the city (or to the state) should increase, since travellers account for virtually all

lodging tax receipts. Increased tax burdens to expand infrastructures and public services will be passed on

to property owners through increased property taxes (Kreag, 2001).

Tourists’ interest and satisfaction for the resources offered by the host communities are sources of local

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natural and non‐natural resources that are often taken for granted. As tourism develops, local residents will

appreciate community facilities more. However, tension between residents and tourists can occur (Allen,

1988). In contexts where culture is part of the tourist attractions, over‐amplification of cultural traits and

creation of other cultural characteristics to satisfy tourist preferences may create a pretentious culture. In

some cases residents may experience a sense of exclusion and alienation over planning and development

concerns (Gurkan, 1996). They may feel a loss of control over the community's future as outsiders take over

establishments and new developments. The local community could feel manipulated and exploited by

outsiders, because of the exclusive benefit of those developers or business people. Moreover, hotels built

in monolithic cubes or restaurants with standardized franchise designs might clash with local standards and

disrupt the aesthetic appearance of the community, damage the peculiar character of the community, and

spread sameness (Faulkner, 1997, La Rocca 2003).

2.4

Discussion

Tourism is one of the world’s most important industries and one of the fastest growing economic sectors.

As a mixed and complex activity (Smith, 1990), tourism comprises the journey to and around a destination,

with the purpose of enjoying particular attractions, accommodation, catering and general services. On the

one hand, the tourist industry creates job opportunities and develops new amenities and recreation

facilities, which would not otherwise be viable in a community. On the other hand, it could produce

negative effects on the environmental, economic and socio‐cultural spheres of a specific location.

This becomes more evident when tourist activities are not adequately developed and planned. Destinations

and tourism‐related businesses around the world experienced a meaningful shift in policy profile;

government and governance, at all levels, dealing with travel and security issues and with the economic

and employment impact of tourism (Bramwell and Lane, 2013). The negative impact of tourism

development can gradually compromise the environmental resources on which it depends. Nevertheless,

tourism could enhance environmental protection and conservation strategies.

In order to avoid adverse consequences, negative impact needs to be monitored on a continuous basis. If

properly planned, tourism can become a positive force for conservation and environmental protection, as

well as for economic development. This is not only necessary for the purpose of protecting the well‐being

of the community, but also for ensuring that the quality and long‐term viability of the tourist product at

individual destinations is not undermined by adverse reactions of the resident population.

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CHAPTER

3

Tourism,

destination

and

perception

3.1

Introduction

The topics of tourist phenomenon and destination images have been included in academic research since

the end of the 1990s (Opperman, 1996; Etchner; 1997). The growing interest in destination

competitiveness has focused on the definition and description of a destination product, and how the tourist

perceives these components. This Chapter explores the tourism phenomenon from a dual perspective. On

the one hand, this section discovers the geographic dimension of tourism supply; on the other hand the

knowledge of consumer psychology has been recognized as the most important factor in determining the

success of a single destination.

In addition, the rapid diffusion of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) currently

converts tourism from a labour‐intensive industry to an information‐intensive one (Buhalis, 2003). As a

result, the role of the ICTs and the Web 2.0 in tourism has been instrumental in both commercial and non‐

commercial activities. In tourism, consumers use the Internet to obtain travel information, share their

experiences, connect with people from various destinations or purchase travel‐related products (Buhalis,

2003).

In the light of the above premises, this section focuses on three main topics: (1) the current developments

in tourism planning and tourist destination, (2) the role and the support of customers’ preferences in

planning processes and (3) a review of the evolution of the e‐Tourism phenomenon.

The chapter is articulated as follows: the first section provides a definition of tourism, which is important

for a variety of theoretical and practical reasons, explains several important tourism conceptual models

founded in literature, in order to better understand current trends in tourism planning. The following

section introduces the definition of travel decision‐making process, starting from the concept of tourist

preferences, which fostered different destination choices. Then, the paragraph focuses on the e‐Tourism

developments and explains current changes in knowledge sharing, which may influence both tourism

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3.2

Current

developments

in

tourism

The terms tourism and tourists, used to describe the movement of people for leisure, were defined at the

beginning of the 19th century (Smith, 1989). Jafari and Ritchie (1981) identified five main components of

tourism research: economy, psychology, geography, sociology and anthropology. According to Smith (1991)

tourism is a complex activity which comprises three main features (Page and Connell, 2006):

1. the movement of people;

2. the economic sector;

3. a broad system of interacting relationships of people, their needs [sic] to travel outside their

communities, and services that attempt to respond to these needs by supplying products.

Moreover, Smith (1991) states that tourists are motivated to seek out individual recreation in new and

different contexts in order to alternate periods of work and relaxation. As a leisure activity, the tourist

system utilizes all types of resources in host areas. Such resources have been classified by Jafari (1982) into

background tourist elements and facility services. Background tourist elements include natural, socio‐

cultural, and architectural attractions, while facility services represents all facilities serving tourist needs,

such as accommodation and specialized amenities, elements of the natural environment, infrastructure and

local facilities serving the local population as well as tourists (Jafari, ibidem). In this sense, tourism and

related activities are combined with territorial factors giving rise to the service use process in which,

essentially, the delivery and consumption of tourism are involved simultaneously in a geographical context

chosen by the consumers and defined as tourist destination (Peroni, 2007).

In the light of the above premises, several conceptual models, found in the literature, dealt with the role of

the psychological characteristics of the individual in terms of needs, perceptions, and motivation; such

components are considered important contributors to the understanding of the individual's travel

behaviour.

The most common concept to provide a definition of tourism is its relationship with travel provided by

Barkat and Medlik (1981). Tourism arises from people’s movement and their stay in various destinations.

There are two elements in all types of tourism: “the journey” to the destination and “the stay”, which

include activities at destinations different from the normal residence and work sites. The movement to

destinations is of a temporary, short‐term nature, with the intention of returning within a few days, weeks

or months. The temporal dimension represents a fundamental factor in tourist phenomenon definition,

which represents a minimum stay of more than 24 hours or a maximum of one year away from home

(WTO, 1991). All tourism includes some travel but not all travel is tourism, while the temporary and short‐

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3.2.1 Different tourism models in literature

The tourist system is a framework which embodies the entire tourist experience of travelling. Several

models, which defined this system’s complexity are traceable in literature. The most accepted model is

Leiper’s spatial model (1990). Leiper identifies a tourism spatial model as comprising the tourists, the

traveller generating region, the tourist destination, the transit routes for tourists travelling between

generating and destination areas, and the travel and tourism industry. In this spatial model, transport

infrastructures are the key elements of the tourist system, connecting the travellers’ region of origin and

their final destination. Moreover the model highlights the importance of these elements: ‐ the tourist;

‐ the integral relationships in the overall tourist experience; ‐ the effect of transportation problems on travellers’ perceptions; ‐ the requirement for provision of services;

‐ the geographic destination.

Considering Leiper’s premise, Peroni (2007) defines tourism as the movement of consumption in space, as

the result of tourist/consumer choice of spending a portion of their income in a place different from his

habitual abode. Therefore, tourism can be considered a spatial (Cooper, 2008) and space consuming

(Boccagna, 2010) phenomenon. Space consumption includes not only the use of specific functions such as

accommodation and restaurant services, but also a wide range of activities which aim to satisfy consumers’

physical and psychological needs (Cooper, 2008). Indeed the movement of travellers from one geographic

location to another encloses personal needs related to health, network and social relations system and

occupational conditions, which directly impact the whole destination dimension (Franch, 2010).

Cooper (2008) describes tourism as a multidimensional and multifaceted activity, which combines many

aspects of life with different economic activities to produce the travel experience. Moreover, he reviews

three key aspects of Leiper’s spatial model:

1. the tourists;

2. the geographic features;

3. the tourist sector.

Cooper defines tourists as the key actors of the tourism system, because the journey to and from a

destination is, firstly, a human experience which will be remembered by many as one of the most

important moments of their life, and the travel motivation is the foundation underpinning this experience.

Dann (1977) addresses the question of “Why do people travel?” In answering this question, Dann (1981)

identifies seven elements which explain the main reasons for travelling:

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2. destination attractiveness (pull) is a response to the desire level of the demand (push). Push

motivations are more related to internal or emotional aspects; pull motivations are connected to external,

situational, or cognitive aspects (Crompton, 1979; Dann, 1981);

3. travel motivation is the result of individual imaginary;

4. travel motivation depends on the diversity of the demand side (visiting relatives and friends,

studying, enjoyment, business and so on);

5. travel motivation depends on the desire to escape from a known to an unknown place (called

“wanderlust” in Gray’s theory) and a place which for travellers could present specific comforts and facilities

that do not exist in their habitual place of residence (referred in Gray’s theory as “sunlust”) (Gray, 1970);

6. travel motivation and tourist experience are strictly linked to each other;

7. travel motivation is general understanding and viewing capability.

The geographic features referred to tourist destination, which represents the territory affected by the

impact of tourism (Leiper, 1990). Franch (2002) defines as pull factors (Crompton, 1979; Dann, 1981) the

four elements which produce destination attractiveness. They consist of:

1. natural or non‐natural components that lead tourists to a given place;

2. accessibility; an easy way to reach a destination will benefit the same through increased tourist

inflow;

3. information points, reception, restaurants, and accommodation system;

4. destination image, which derives from positive travel experiences and generates tourist

satisfaction (Urry et al, 2007; Geng‐Qing Chi and Qu, 2008).

Finally, the tourist sector is a complex of businesses and organizations, geographically located according to

their function, which are involved in the creation of the “tourism product” (Cooper et al 2008). Typically

when tourists spend their holidays in a destination, they do not consume the product of only one supplier,

but a bundle of services as a whole (Kaspar, 1991). A lot of different service suppliers participate in creating

the “tourism experience” (Weiermair, 2004).

In the literature we can identify many authors who have been concerned with the definition of the tourism

model; even though few have been proposed. The big issue for planners is both choosing fundamental

criteria for preserving natural and socio‐cultural capital at local and regional levels, achieving intra and

intergenerational equity in the distribution of costs and benefits, and satisfying the needs of tourists

(Briassoulis, 2002). However, this kind of information about tourist phenomenon and tourists’ perceptions

and opinions is not always properly analysed by planners.

Understanding the tourist phenomenon may help in assessing some of the problems which planners and

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understanding of travel motivations and tailoring tourist service supply, decision making can be facilitated

by emphasizing the strengths of tourist destinations for past and potential tourists. Moreover,

understanding the tourists’ satisfaction, which depends on factors related to both location and services

that the local industry proposes, may offer valuable information in tourism planning at regional and local

levels.

3.3

Destination

choices

and

travel

motivation

Most studies of tourists’ preferences address tourists’ destination choices as the key element in the travel

decision‐making process. According to Dellaert et al. (1998), this element is combined with accommodation

or activity choices. On the one hand, the investigation of decision‐making processes, mostly conceptual in

nature, focuses on the types of decision rules and the decision‐making stages that are likely to be adopted

by tourists. On the other hand, research in choice factors has been primarily addressed with empirical

examinations of critical attributes, used by tourists as criteria for determining their travel alternatives

(Crompton, 1979). This section provides a brief explanation of tourists’ travel destination choices and their

travel motivations. In addition a brief explanation of the main factors that influence costumers’

preferences, based on literature review, is provided.

Knowledge of the consumer’s psychology is extremely important in determining the success of a

destination (Rodriguez del Bosque and San Martin, 2008). In this sense, an exploration of psychological

concepts such as attitudes, decision‐making processes, emotions, experience and satisfaction is necessary

for understanding costumer preferences regarding tourist destination choice. A tourist destination is

perceived by tourists as a single entity, but in fact it comprises several stakeholder groups: tourists,

business entities operating in the tourism sector, the public sector, the host population, and

representatives of non‐governmental organizations (Buhalis, 2000).

The destination consists of a well‐defined geographical area, such as a country, a region or a city (Hall,

2000) that can be referred to as a product or a brand (Yoon and Uysal, 2005). Many studies on tourists’

travel choice distinguish among various approaches to the definition of tourist destination. Van Raaij (1986)

defined the travel destination as a product, which is partly given and partly man‐made. The given part

refers to the natural features of a destination, such as climate, landscapes, beaches, mountains and

historic‐culture buildings. The man‐made part refers to physical features such as hotels, package tours,

transportation facilities, sports and recreation facilities, which can be modified to satisfy customers’

preferences and their budget.

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from a strategic point of view. For Buhalis (2000) destination is a defined geographical region with a

political and legislative framework for tourism marketing and planning, and it is understood by the tourists

as a unique entity. Destinations thus offer “a package of tourism facilities and services, which like any other

consumer product, is composed of a number of multi‐dimensional attributes mix of tourism products and

services, which are integrated under a brand name” Hu and Ritchie (1993).

Determining the factors that influence tourists’ choice of a destination is essential in developing

appropriate marketing strategies. Age, income, gender, personality, education, cost, distance and

nationality are factors that affect destination choices (Van Raaij, 1986). According to Kuang Hsu et al.

(2009) travel motivation is a dynamic concept that changes from one person to another and from one

destination to another. Cooper (2009) pointed out that one popular conceptual model for understanding

travel motivation is the push and pull model proposed by Crompton (1979). The push motivations are

useful in order to explain the desire for travel while the pull motivations explain the actual choice of

destination. Moreover, the Crompton model identifies seven socio‐psychological (push) motivations

(escape, self‐exploration, relaxation, prestige, regression, kinship‐enhancement, and social interaction) and

two cultural (pull) motivations (novelty and education). Uysal and Jurowski (1994) further developed

Crompton’s model and summarizes internal (push) and external (pull) motivators to travel. Internal

motivators include desire for escape, rest, relaxation, prestige, health and fitness, adventure, and social

interaction. External motivators are based on attra